Underwatered Pothos: How To Tell and How To Fix It

Your Pothos is underwatered if the soil is bone dry and pulling away from the pot, water runs straight through the drainage holes without soaking in, and the leaves are drooping, dull, or curling in on themselves.

Growth stalls too, because the plant is too busy fixing its roots to bother with new leaves. The fix isn’t a quick splash on top: it’s a proper soak.

The Signs Your Pothos Is Underwatered

• Soil has shrunk away from the sides of the pot
• Water runs straight through and comes out the bottom almost instantly, like you’ve poured it through a sieve
• Leaves are [drooping], feel thin, or look dull rather than glossy
• Leaf edges curling inward
• Little to no new growth
• The pot feels suspiciously light when you pick it up

Not all of these need to show up at once. One or two is usually enough to tell you what’s going on.

Why This Looks Exactly Like Overwatering (And Why That’s So Annoying)

Here’s the frustrating part about Pothos care: overwatering and underwatering can produce almost identical symptoms. Drooping leaves, brown patches, stalled growth: all of it can point to either problem, or to something else entirely like pests, low light, or too much light. Plants only have a handful of ways to say “something’s wrong,” and they’re not fussy about which problem gets which symptom.

The reason under and overwatering look so similar is simple once you get it. Both types of Pothos struggle to absorb water, just for opposite reasons. An underwatered plant has dry, brittle roots with no water available to take up. An overwatered plant has roots that have rotted from sitting in soggy soil too long, so they physically can’t function anymore, even with plenty of water sitting right there in the pot. Different cause, same result: a plant that can’t get a drink.

How To Actually Check (Don’t Trust The Top Inch)

Forget the classic advice to test the top inch of soil. It’s misleading, because how far down you need to check depends entirely on your pot size and what your soil mix is made of. Sticking a finger one inch into a big pot of chunky aroid mix tells you almost nothing.

Better checks:

• Lift the pot. Dry soil is dramatically lighter than wet soil. Once you know what your Pothos feels like freshly watered, a suspiciously light pot is a big clue.
• Look at the sides. If the soil has visibly shrunk away from the edge of the pot, water run down that gap and out the bottom instead of soaking in, which is exactly what makes underwatered soil so hard to fix with a normal watering.
• Try a moisture meter, with a caveat. These work well if you’re using a standard shop-bought potting mix. If your Pothos is in a chunky, bark-heavy homemade mix, moisture meters tend to give unreliable readings and aren’t worth trusting.

How To Fix An Underwatered Pothos

If your soil has gone hydrophobic (the technical way of saying it repels water instead of absorbing it), watering from the top the normal way won’t cut it. The water just runs down the sides and out the bottom, leaving the actual root ball as dry as it was before you started.

The fix is a proper soak:

1. Fill a sink, basin, or bucket with room temperature water.
2. Submerge the pot so the waterline sits close to the rim (keep the foliage out of it).
3. Leave it for 15 to 30 minutes. You’ll likely see air bubbles rising as trapped air escapes and water finally gets in.
4. Lift the pot out and let it drain properly before putting it back in its spot.

For soil that’s really committed to being difficult, one soak might not be enough. Repeat it a day or two later if the pot still feels light or water still isn’t absorbing. This is one of those situations where patience beats drastic action: repotting is rarely the fix here. Ripping out a root system that’s already stressed from drought does more harm than good. Soak it, give it time, and resist the urge to do anything more dramatic.

What Happens After You Fix It

Don’t expect fireworks straight away. Roots that have gone dry and brittle need to repair themselves before the plant bothers redirecting energy towards new leaves. So if your Pothos looks the same, or even a bit sorry for itself, for a week or two after you’ve sorted the watering, that’s normal. It’s not sulking, it’s triaging root repair over growth. New leaves show up once the roots are functioning properly again.

If You Keep Doing This (No Judgement)

Some of us (in the immortal words of Taylor Swift, it’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me)are chronic underwaterers. If that’s you, the long-term fix is to stop relying on memory and go for a setup that’s harder to mess up. [Self-watering pots for Pothos] take the guesswork out entirely, and semi-hydroponics or keeping your Pothos in water permanently means it’s drawing up exactly what it needs, when it needs it, with no soaking sessions required.

How To Stop This Happening Again

The best fix for underwatering is not getting there in the first place. Our guide to [how often to water your Pothos] breaks down how to build a routine that actually works for your home, rather than following a generic “once a week” rule that ignores your light, pot size, and soil.

Underwatered Pothos FAQs

Will an underwatered Pothos recover?

Yes, in almost every case. Pothos are famously forgiving, and as long as the roots haven’t been dry for so long that they’ve died off completely, a proper soak and a bit of patience will bring it back.

And if it doesn’t, we can’ alwasy chop n prop.

How long does it take a Pothos to recover from underwatering?

Usually one to two weeks before you see real improvement, and a bit longer before new growth appears. Mild cases can bounce back within days.

Should I mist an underwatered Pothos instead of watering it?

No. Misting does next to nothing for humidity or hydration, it just leaves the leaves damp for about ten minutes. Water needs to go in the soil, not on the leaves.

Is it better to underwater or overwater a Pothos?

Underwater, every time. An underwatered Pothos is stressed but recoverable. An overwatered Pothos has often already got root rot setting in by the time you notice a problem, which is much harder to reverse. If in doubt, wait.

Can I fix underwatering just by watering more often going forward?

Not on its own. Watering more often without fixing the current hydrophobic soil just means more water running straight past the roots. Soak it properly first, then adjust your routine.

New Pothos in the house? Grab the free guide, Everything You Need To Do When You Bring Your First Pothos Home, so you’re not troubleshooting a drought before you’ve even worked out where to put the thing. [Get the free guide →]